Accidents Will Happen

One Tree Hill has more car accident victims than some medical dramas. This theme is established with two separate near-accidents in the first few minutes of the first episode: Peyton stops short of running into Lucas and Nathan almost crashes a “borrowed” school bus into a train. Those may have been close calls, but it turns out they were only delaying the inevitable flaming wreckage in their future…

1×04 – Crash Into You Nathan takes Peyton’s car without asking to give Haley a ride home from a party. After dropping her off, he sideswipes a parked car and crashes it into a telephone pole. Lucas witnesses the accident and runs to the car, thinking Peyton was driving. He confronts Nathan, who is a really big douchebag about the whole thing. He leaves the car on the side of the road and tells Lucas he will deny what happened. Later on, Nathan lies to Peyton about the whereabouts of her car. This accident is noteworthy because no one is injured!

1×13 – Hanging by a Moment On their way to pick up Karen at the airport, Keith and Lucas are hit by an oncoming vehicle. Dan witnesses the accident and rushes an unconscious and badly injured Lucas to the hospital, where he must acknowledge Lucas is his son in order to save his life.

2×19 – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning Nathan’s Uncle Cooper, a race car driver, takes Nathan and Lucas to the track. While racing, Nathan crashes into the wall and his car goes up in flames. Cooper and Lucas pull him from the wrecked car and he is transported to the hospital for emergency surgery. The question remains — did Nathan lose control of his car or did his broken marriage to Haley drive him to self-destruction?

3×22 – The Show Must Go On After giving an embarrassing drunken speech about her relationship with Cooper at Nathan and Haley’s second wedding, Rachel runs out and steals a limousine. Cooper jumps in to stop her from driving away. She stops the car, they fight, and Cooper says he will drive them back to the reception. On the way back, Rachel screams at him to pull over, and when he doesn’t she yanks the wheel causing him to lose control of the limousine. He swerves to avoid crashing into Nathan and Haley’s oncoming car. The limousine breaks through the guard rail on the bridge and plummets into the water below, and Nathan jumps in to save Cooper and Rachel.

4×09 – Some You Give Away Nathan breaks his agreement with Daunte and doesn’t throw the state championship game — the Ravens win! In retaliation, Daunte drives furiously toward Nathan and Haley, who are walking outside after celebrating. Spotting the car, Haley pushes Nathan out of the way just before she is hit, bounced off the hood, and thrown to the ground. Daunte continues driving but loses control of his car and crashes into a concrete barrier. Lucas runs out to the scene and calls 911. Nathan spots Daunte’s wrecked car and, fueled by rage, runs to it, pulls a limp Daunte out of the car, and starts beating him ferociously. He is stopped by Dan, who believes Nathan has beaten Daunte to death. Dan tells Nathan to flee and punches the concrete to injure his hand so he can take the blame. Back at the scene of Haley’s accident, Lucas collapses to the ground — a stress-induced heart attack related to his HCM. Haley and Lucas are rushed to the hospital and everyone cries.

5×02 – Racing Like a Pro Skills helps Jamie build a soap box derby car. Before allowing Jamie to take a ride in the car, the gang does a test run with a mannequin. Tragically, the derby car loses a wheel and the mannequin loses its head. Jamie chooses not to participate in the derby.

5×18 – What Comes After the Blues After helping an elderly couple walk to the curb, Dan warns them to be careful while backing up into the street directly into path of an oncoming vehicle! He is tossed off the hood and hits the ground, rolling four times. To add insult to injury, his hospital pager goes off to inform him a heart is ready for transplant while he lays in the street unconscious.

6×20 – I Would for You Sitting at a red light, a pregnant Peyton happily watches a mother and daughter on the sidewalk. When the light turns green, she pulls ahead and doesn’t notice a vehicle running the red light. Her car is struck on the passenger side and and spins in the intersection.

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